Kentucky Estates: articles on business planning issues
Many of my clients own second homes at the beach, or the lake. Less frequently, clients own large properties (often farms) that have deep family and historic significance. In either instance, clients often want to keep these vacation or farm properties “in the family.” Unfortunately, there are many instances in which these good intentions work […]
My practice, and the practices of most colleagues and friends who are also trust and estate attorneys, has become busier than any of us ever expected after the 2010 tax act made high estate tax exemptions an (allegedly) permanent part of the landscape. I think one issue, more than any other, has been the key […]
Estate administration can be a frustrating experience for families and their advisors, because it’s an occasion when families fight. Sometimes the fights are necessary, and unavoidable. Many other times, to a detached observer, the fights seem silly. Whether justified (or not), whether necessary (or not), conflict makes estate administration cost more (even when litigation doesn’t […]
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what a “Corporate Event” at Humana might mean for Louisville. A rosy analysis I’ve heard suggests that Aetna might buy Humana, and then move its headquarters here. We’d all love that outcome (sorry, Hartford). Other Humana transactions may have collateral effects on our city that are, to put it […]
Last week, Business First of Louisville published a report and slideshow on the top 25 largest residential real estate transactions of the first quarter of 2015 in Jefferson County. It might surprise you to know that a home bought for $646,000 was pricey enough to make the first quarter slideshow. The most expensive home on […]
If you have been working since the late ‘90s, you have probably collected some great stories about exercising stock options and other equity-based compensation. Some are unqualified success stories, like the time my college roommate’s father pulled up outside the college dorm in a brand-new zippy BMW convertible (top down, naturally), and told us to […]
Noncompetition agreements are a common fact of life for many of the mid- and senior-level executives I represent in estate planning, and for business owner clients with employees. Because noncompetes are such important features of the life cycle estate and financial planning landscape, I sat down with my colleague Rebecca Weis to learn more about […]
In my practice, I have found that a majority of my clients who create significant wealth do so through ownership of a private business or a concentrated stock position in a publicly traded company. What that means for you is that if you haven’t yet started a business or taken an ownership position in one, […]
This series on how grantor retained annuity trusts can be applied in situations with upside business potential presented an overview of how GRATs work in Part 1. Part 2 presented a case study of how an “Entrepreneurial GRAT” could be used to substantially improve the net-of-tax risk-adjusted return for a risky venture with a new […]
As we saw in Part 1 of this series, a grantor retained annuity trust (or “GRAT”) can be a very effective way to remove the government as a 40% silent partner in the potential upside of a business venture in several types of circumstances. In the pre-2010 regime of low estate tax exemptions, two common […]
The pursuit of wealth has long been part of the American Dream, and a positive feature of the current $5.34 million estate tax exemption (high by historic standards) is that entrepreneurs have more “run room” before the Federal government becomes a 40% silent partner in the upside of all the work, creativity, striving, and risk […]
In our previous post, we used a case study of the hypothetical Widget family to illustrate the unintended discord families can face when the founder’s descendants are “frozen in” to the family business. There are many approaches the founding generation can use in its own planning to avoid “freeze-in”. A funded buy-sell agreement can be […]